NewsWrap
for the week ending March 20, 2004
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #834, distributed 3-22-04)
[Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Fenceberry, Rex
Wockner, and Greg Gordon]
Anchored this week by Rick Watts and Cindy Friedman
Quebec has become the third Canadian province where same-gender couples can
legally marry, thanks to a ruling this week by its top provincial court. The
Quebec Court of Appeal unanimously upheld a 2002 trial court decision that
denying marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples violates Canada's Charter
of Rights and Freedoms. It also cancelled the remaining 5-1/2 months of a
suspension of that decision taking effect, so applications for licenses can now be
accepted.
The provincial high court dismissed a challenge to the trial court ruling by
the Catholic Civil Rights League and the Evangelical Christian Fellowship,
saying those groups lack the legal standing to appeal since the federal
government had already withdrawn its own appeal. Clergy by law cannot be required to
perform marriages in violation of their beliefs. The Court of Appeal found the
groups' challenge moot and even questioned its own jurisdiction to take up
their appeal, since the challengers have intervenor status in pending
proceedings of the Supreme Court of Canada. That court will be reviewing questions the
Canadian Government has submitted in preparing to develop a federal bill for
marriage equality.
Although Quebec is only the third province to open legal marriage to
same-gender couples -- following Ontario and British Columbia -- those provinces are
home to more than 70% of the Canadian population.
The plaintiffs in the original Quebec ruling are activist couple Michael
Hendricks and Rene Lebouef. They were prepared to hold their legal wedding even
back in January when the Court of Appeal heard the case, in event of an
immediate ruling in their favor. They filed their application for a marriage
license immediately after this week's ruling was handed down. Yet after 30 years
together and more than 5 years of legal proceedings leading up to this week's
decision, they still must wait another 20 days to marry, as they were not
granted an exemption from Quebec's standard waiting period. They've promised their
April 6th ceremony will be "open to everyone."
Marriage equality could be coming soon to Norway, which was the second
nation in the world to establish registered partnerships for gays and lesbians
with legal standing essentially equal to marriage. The SV or Socialist Left
Party has proposed that the Parliament replace those partnerships with marriage.
The Labor Party's position is seen as the deciding factor in the debate, and
at least some of the party's leadership has already come out in favor of the
move.
The surprise general elections upset this week of the ruling Partido
Popular in Spain -- widely attributed to the terrorist attacks there -- is apt to
lead to legal recognition of same-gender couples. While there's been
multi-party support for the move in the Spanish Parliament, the PP blocked numerous
bills during its two terms of government. Socialist Party Prime Minister-to-be
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero this week told a television audience, "We are going
to present a bill to set gay unions on the same footing as marriage. From a
semantic point of view marriage may be a concept that does not cover this type
of union, but it will have the same legal effects." Zapatero said legal
standing for gay and lesbian couples is a mark of "a modern and tolerant society."
Although the move was part of the Socialist Party's campaign platform,
Zapatero was not ready to say when a bill might be introduced.
Opposition from the Vatican has posed a barrier to legal recognition of gay
and lesbian couples in heavily Catholic Spain. The nation's ranking Catholic,
Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, was joined by outgoing P.M. Jose Maria
Aznar in expressing outrage at Zapatero's plan and calling on Catholics to
actively oppose it.
This week the Vatican supported the Islamic bloc at the United Nations in
challenging UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's extension of spousal benefits to
the UN's gay and lesbian employees. Those benefits are offered only to
employees whose same-gender relationships are recognized at home, and awarded only
after specific approval by their nations' UN delegations. Although only a
handful of applications have been received since Annan announced the new policy
less than two months ago, the 56-member Organization of the Islamic Conference
raised a series of objections at a budget committee. They accused Annan of
exceeding his authority by redefining family. Ironically, many of those Islamic
nations recognize polygamous marriages, and UN employees from those nations
are free to split their spousal benefits among multiple wives. The European
Union, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand were among the defenders of benefits
for gay and lesbian partners, while the U.S. representative was not prepared to
comment.
The Islamic bloc indicated it would bring the issue to the UN Commission on
Human Rights, which opened a session in Geneva this week.
China this week approved its second legal marriage of a transwoman to a
biological male. Zhang Lin received at the same time both a marriage certificate
and a new identity card recognizing her post-surgical gender in Peng in
Sichuan province. Zhang will wed Yang Qicheng before 500 guests in May.
But a transwoman who applied for a marriage license in the U.S. state of
Kansas was arrested and faces charges for falsifying an official document.
Transwoman Sandy Clarissa Gast had previously legally changed her name and
obtained a driver's license identifying her as female. But Leavenworth County
prosecutors are following a Kansas state Supreme Court ruling in a high-profile
inheritance case, that even sex reassignment surgery cannot change gender from how
it was identified at birth.
Also facing charges this week are the two Unitarian Universalist ministers
who performed weddings for 13 gay and lesbian couples in New Paltz, New York.
After New Paltz Mayor Jason West was stopped by both misdemeanor charges and
civil court actions from continuing his "solemnizing" of same-gender
marriages, ministers Kay Greenleaf and Dawn Sangrey picked up where he left off.
Ulster County District Attorney Donald Williams proved just as willing to charge
them as he was to charge West, even though its believed to be the first such
prosecution of clergy in the U.S. There will be no lack of evidence, as numerous
uniformed police officers were witnessing and recording the ceremonies. But
many other questions are raised. For one, the ministers, unlike the mayor,
are not sworn to uphold the law. For another, religious freedom is protected by
the constitution -- and in fact, the 200,000-member Unitarian Universalist
Church has formally blessed same-gender couples across the country for 35 years.
Greenleaf and Sangrey plan to plead not guilty and fight the charges.
A half-dozen of their colleagues have vowed to continue the New Paltz
weddings -- but they've had to change the venue. The planned site had been a club
called The Wave, but the New York State Liquor Authority warned its owner that
such "illegal activity" might "reflect on" his liquor license. The ceremonies
have been moved to the Lefevre House Bed & Breakfast.
Irate clergy responded to the New Paltz action with a demonstration on the
steps of New York City Hall. Although a rabbi and an Episcopalian minister
performed 3 weddings of gay and lesbian couples while 30 other assorted clergy
stood by, Manhattan's District Attorney had no interest in bringing charges
against them. D.A. Robert Morgenthau believes civil lawsuits rather than
criminal proceedings are appropriate for resolving the legal questions.
At the moment, Oregon is the one U.S. state where a same-gender couple can
obtain a marriage license. Although the state is refusing to register those
marriages, this week Multnomah County officials announced they'll continue to
issue licenses for them -- and the Benton County Board of Commissioners voted
to begin doing so next week. Although the Governor and state Attorney-General
have asked counties not to license same-gender couples until the Oregon
Supreme Court has offered a decision, they may not have much real authority under
state law to force counties to comply. So far the state has not initiated any
actual legal action on the issue, although private parties have filed lawsuits
to stop the licensing in both counties. While the state Supreme Court has
taken a first small step, its opinion may or may not come any time soon.
Many U.S. state legislatures continue to debate many bills against
same-gender marriages.
This week the New Hampshire state Senate approved by more than 2-to-1 a
measure closely modeled on the federal so-called Defense of Marriage Act, to deny
legal recognition of same-gender marriages performed outside the state.
Also the Mississippi state Senate was unanimous in approving a proposed
amendment to the state Constitution to restrict legal recognition exclusively to
marriages of "one man and one woman".
Both those measures move next to their respective state Houses.
And finally... the U.S. media descended in force this week on Rhea County,
Tennessee. The Associated Press reported that county commissioners had voted
unanimously not only to ask state legislators to make it possible for them to
bring criminal charges for so-called "crimes against nature," but also to have
the county attorney look into how best to legally bar gays and lesbians from
residing in the county -- because, one commissioner was quoted as saying, "We
need to keep them out of here." With the eyes of the nation upon them,
however, officials insisted that the only thing the commission was doing was trying
to express their support for Tennessee's restriction of marriage to "one man
and one woman" -- although admittedly they'd been angered by recent gay and
lesbian marriage actions around the country. It may never be known for sure
exactly what really was said or intended. But Rhea County rarely achieves
visibility, perhaps only for its annual celebration of its 1925 legal victory against
the teaching of evolution. Of course that Scopes "Monkey Trial" victory was
later overturned, but the story lives on in the film "Inherit the Wind".